Switchfoot – Oh! Gravity.

Listen to the lyrics of Switchfoot’s sixth album, and you would hardly know that this is a recording of a Christian rock group. They are socially conscious and indeed inspiring, but unlike on previous releases, there is no direct reference to Christ or faith in him.

This need not be a bad thing. The values expressed conform with Christian ethics, and it is good that these are communicated to an audience that might switch off at the thought of Christian rock (and go on to listen to more libertine material). One hopes that in particular the anti-materialistic message of American Dream will resonate.

On Oh! Gravity., Switchfoot rock harder than they have in years—the title track in particular is a driving, infectious rock work-out.

The group experiments with a wide range of influences, especially from the 1960s (even the cover evokes the Beatles’ 1966 Revolver album). Amateur Lovers, for example, sounds like the best song the Rolling Stones haven’t recorded for decades.

Dirty Second Hands is unlike anything the group has ever created, a farrago of innovation (with strong hints of ’60s supergroup The Byrds) that works surprisingly well. Of all the songs on this set, this one underpins the band’s assertion that they sought to refrain from commercialism and make the album they wanted to make.

It’s all (ahem) rock solid stuff, brightly produced and at times very catchy. Yet, somehow here Switchfoot just don’t seem to soar as they used to on tracks like Dare You To Move or We Are One Tonight, or land creeping punches as they did on slower songs such as You or The Shadow Proves The Sunshine.

The Switchfoot formula is still in evidence (especially on Awakening), but there is much here that is new. And it certainly is a grower of an album.

Listen to: Oh! Gravity.; Amateur Lovers; Awakening; Dirty Second Hands; Faust, Midas And Myself; Burn Out